What's in a Name?

M: Tyson, what do you want to name your baby brother?

T: I don't know, how about the alphabet?

M: The entire alphabet?

T: Yeah!

M: You want to call the whole alphabet when you want him to come?

T: Yeah!

M: Don't you think that's a little long?

T: No. It will help him grow up better and smarter because he will know the alphabet. And when Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz goes to school the kids will all say "Your name is so long it will barely fit on a name tag!" That's so funny!

The Terrible Two's

Preston is nearly two. He seems to be testing the waters of "the terrible twos." Over the last few weeks he has developed some serious opinions about life.

Spoons, cups, plates, fruit snacks, books, milk, clothes.

You know, the important stuff.

The problem I am finding is that he seems to want to have an opinion, but doesn't just know what opinion he wants.

For example, this is an actual conversation I've had with him:

M: Preston, what color of Popsicle do you want?

P: Red

M: OK, here is a red Popsicle

P: NO! BLUE!!!

M: OK, here is a blue Popsicle

P: (Screaming now) NO NO NO RED!!

M: OK, here is your red Popsicle

P: (hysterically crying) BLUE BLUE BLUE

M: Preston what color of Popsicle do you want

P: WHAAAAAAA

M: I am putting the Popsicles away now

P: NO! RED

M: (struggling to stay calm) OK, here is your red Popsicle

P: (sniffling) OK, red

The Only Thing Better Than Two Boys is Three!

That's right fellow blogging peeps, we're having another boy!

I admit I was in shock when the ultrasound tech wrote, "OH BOY!!!" on the screen.

He was adorable and wiggling everywhere.

The tech commented on how active he was.
That should be lots of fun when he gets bigger!

Pray for my ribs!

For now I am thoroughly enjoying all the little bumps, pokes and kicks.

My favorite picture is this one of his biceps:

What a stud!

Tyson is a little sad that he won't be getting his sister as soon as he had hoped. He told me that he really hopes the next one is a girl. But I don't think it will take long for him to be excited about his baby brother.

To announce to family we made cupcakes with blue colored filling.

Tyson looks happy, but maybe just because his cupcake was his favorite color.

Grandma looks likes she doesn't believe it.

And Papa looks very pleased.

Are You Feeling Lucky?

The wait is nearly over.

Tomorrow is the big day, the day of my (and Deb's) Ultrasound.

So let the official guessing begin.

FYI: The Chinese Calendar predicts a Girl (however the Chinese lunar calendar says Boy)

The heart rate prediction points to a Girl

Tyson has always said it was a Girl (He predicted Preston correctly)

The ring test says Boy

According to some on-line quiz I am having a Girl

I think it's a girl, but I am always wrong!

Post your official predictions now!

*And for the record: Despite popular belief, I will not be sad if it's a boy. I'm good at raising boys. The only thing better than two beautiful boys is three!

Outwit ~ Outplay ~ Outlast

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have moved Preston out of his crib and into a toddler bed. Nap time is no longer peaceful.

It has become a passive aggressive battle

Mom vs. Toddler

Day 1
Toddler: Refuses to stay in bedroom
Mom: Puts childproof knob on the door

Day 2:
Toddler: Plays in the diaper pail
Mom: Removes diaper pail from the room

Day 3:
Mom: Runs errands all afternoon until Toddler falls asleep in the car then she carries a sleeping child to his bed.
Toddler: Takes a wonderful nap

Day 4:
Mom: Runs errands all afternoon
Toddler: Doesn't fall asleep in the car, and fails to nap at all that day

Day 5:
Toddler: Empties out dresser, breaks CD player, and wreaks havoc on the closet, but first he unplugs the baby monitor so Mom is unaware of mischief.
Mom: Refills the dresser, barricades the closet, and rearranges the furniture to protect the new CD player.

Day 6:
Mom: Allows Toddler to read books in bed in hopes of avoiding more mischief.
Toddler: 'Reads' for 90 minutes and falls asleep on the floor with Desitin smeared on his cheek.

Puzzle Time

Remember this post?

Preston is still obsessed with puzzles.

He is getting so good at them, that I no longer have to help him with most of our puzzles.

I know this video is long. (About 12 minutes)

I don't expect you to watch the whole thing. Just check out his amazing puzzle skills!

He is better at the scarecrow puzzle than this bus puzzle, but that video won't post :(

And icing on the cake: He can put all the pieces back in the box by himself before he gets out the next puzzle!

Wordless Wednesday

He's Growing Up!

Preston's second birthday is right around the corner. Add that to the fact that we have a new baby on the horizon. It's time to transition him slowly into a "big boy."

I've been babying him for the last few months, knowing that his time as baby was quickly drawing to a close. But the time for babying is over.

He's ready and I'm ready!

Let the "fun" begin.

1. Give up sippy cups

Check!

2.Graduate from crib to toddler bed

Check!

3.Begin riding forward facing in the car

Check!

4. Break the finger sucking habit

A work in process

5. Potty training . . . . . . .

Not quite yet.

While we are far from done with the transitioning, we are well on our way.

Sweet Innocence

I was slacking as a mother the other night and I let Tyson watch a sitcom with me. I typically don't because he is such an aware child. Nothing gets past him. I tried to distract him with other things, but he seemed to sense that I didn't want him watching with him. And therefore, it made watching the TV too enticing.

During one of the commercial breaks (which contained more questionable content than the actual show) a preview for a rated R movie came on. After failing to divert his attention he asked me, "What does 'Rated R' mean?"

M: It means that the movie has a lot of bad stuff in it. Mommy and Daddy don't watch movies like that.
T: Who would want to watch a movie with bad stuff in it?
M: Some people choose to.
T: Like who?
M: (Not wanting to name names, I took the easy way out) I don't know.
T: Tanner* (a kid in our neighborhood) likes to watch movies with bad words like 'dumb', and 'crap' and 'loser'. All the bad words. So I guess some people like that kind of stuff.

*Not his real name.

Don't You Just Hate It When A Song Gets Stuck In Your Head?!

The boys have a new favorite YouTube video.

It's actually a bunch of videos of the same character singing different songs in various languages.

Let me introduce you to the Gummy Bear:

Want more Gummy Bear?

Here's his Nuki Song, the Choco Choco Choco Song, and Itsy Bitsy Bikini.

Still not enough?

How about the Hungarian Version, the Swedish Version, the French Version, the Spanish Version, the Spanglish Version, the German Version, the Brazillian Version, the Slovak Version, the Hebrew Version, and the Czech Version.

Happy Viewing!

Wordless Wednesday

Babies on the Brain

First, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog you will see my little pregnancy ticker. This morning it switched from the fourth to the fifth baby.

The middle baby!

Which means I nearly half done baking this kid! It honestly doesn't feel like half way to me. Maybe I will feel differently in a couple weeks when I actually hit the half way mark.

(Which reminds me, it's nearly time to start the guessing games. Feel free to start posting your sex predictions.)

Some days I forget I am pregnant. Other days I feel it. My back is starting is bug me, most specifically my sciatic area. It makes being Mom difficult.

Bending, lifting, sitting on the floor, all are taboo.

I've yet to discover how to be Mom without doing these things however. In the meantime, there will be more toys on my floor, a surplus of weeds in my garden, and Preston will be walking a lot more.

In fact, I think this back pain is the motivation I needed to move him out of his crib and into a toddler bed. That is, if I could carry the toddler bed up from the storage room and take down a crib by myself.

In other (more exciting) baby news, Baby Eli is coming today!

I am so excited, but not nearly excited as his parents -to-be.

I can't wait to see pictures.

The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Innocent

My mom cut this comic out for me.

She thought I might like it.

Hmmm, I wonder why?

(Click on the comic to view a larger image)

You Don't Need To Be Sherlock

It's easy to tell when a child plays with your camera.

They always leave evidence.

Judging from the angle and height of this picture, I am going to guess that Preston is the guilty one.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Over the weekend we (the boys and I) joined my parents and grandma for a visit to Antelope Island.

The occasion:

The Balloon and Kite Stampede

It ended up being too windy for the Hot Air Balloons the day we went, but the wind made for some great kite flying. We sat for hours watching the professionals do their thang.

I failed to get a picture of our favorite kite. It spun in circles and took nose dives only to stop 5 feet from the ground and hover there for awhile. Sometimes it flew up, sometimes it flew down, and sometimes it flew parallel to the ground.

On purpose!

This kite was having fun zooming in for a close up and tapping people on the head.

The boys enjoyed cotton candy, kettle corn, and snow cones.

But the highlight for Tyson was the face painting.

Tyson had several people stop and say,

"Hi Spider-Man."

or

"Hey Spider-Man, I saw you on TV!"

After one such encounter Tyson said, "Mom, how did he know I was Spider-Man?"

Preston got in on the action too. You can't tell from the picture but he was very excited to have a baseball painted on his face.

"Know first who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly." ~ Euripides

As a reward for getting his homework done quickly I let Tyson have one of my "good" pieces of paper from the printer.

(as opposed to the recycling paper that we usually let him use.)

Don't judge me, this kid uses A LOT of paper.

He decided to make this awesome, one-of-a-kind Spider-man mask.

It is red on one side and black on the other.

He told me that the black side is for when he is happy, and the red side is for when he is mad.

He was even kind enough to give his brother a turn with the mask.

Unfortunately it was more of a custom mask, not really one-size-fits-all.

Class of 2025

And a bonus video because everyone loves a good outtake:

Aarrgg Mateys

Dan was able to get off work early Saturday night (nothing short of a miracle!), so we decided to take advantage of some

good quality family time.

After Plan A and Plan B fell through, we ended up at

Pirate Island as Plan C.

Not realizing it was a Saturday night, we were surprised to discover the wait to be seated was 90 minutes!

Luckily, Pirate Island is more than just a restaurant. We were easily able to spend the next hour+ in play area and arcade.

Tyson and Preston thought the pirate ship was pretty cool.

Preston loved climbing the small rock wall and shooting down the slide repeatedly.

Until they discovered the rides and games.

For the price of a handful of tokens they had a fantastic time bouncing from one game to another. And just as we were being paged to our table for dinner, they were able to trade in their tickets for piratey trinkets (stickers, candy, pencils, etc.)

The restaurant was good too (much better than the crap they feed you at Chuck E. Cheese's.) The servers were all dressed as pirates and the kids' menus fold into pirate hats.

The boys were in pirate heaven.

Aarrgg me Hartys!

It didn't hurt that the waitress thought my children were darling and polite.

Wordless Wednesday

Cafe Preggers

I found this Pregnancy Menu in a Mom-To-Be magazine.

I found it hilarious but true.

Enjoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Trimester Menu

Appetizer

Tums Compote

Entree

Fresh Saltines on a bed of Saltines, lightly seasoned with Saltines

Beverage

Ginger Ale (IV drip available upon request)

Dessert

Ten minutes in a dim room with an ice bag on your head

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second Trimester Menu

Appetizer

Half a roast turkey, extra crispy

Entree*

A succulent leg of lamb smothered in pork chops, served BBQ ribs and garnished with cheeseburgers (all burnt beyond recognition for your safety)

Beverage

Toll House-pie smoothie, prepared with 1/2 pint heavy cream

Dessert

9/13 pan of double fudge brownies

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third Trimester Menu

(Each course followed by 15 minute neck massage and/or bathroom break.)

Appetizer

Three bites of tossed salad

Entree

Two bites of lasagna

Beverage

None- so you'll have room for dessert

Dessert

A Tic-Tac

*Double portions available if you're expecting twins